Spirally formed pipe is typically formed from a single strip of metal. As a pipe is formed, the strip of metal is coiled and adjacent edges of the strips are folded and pressed together to form a lockseam. When the spirally formed pipe reaches a desired length, a pipe cutting device severs the pipe. Spiral pipe has applications in many areas, including vehicle oil filters, culvert pipe and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning).
In applications such as culvert pipe fabrication, it is advantageous to create corrugations in the pipe to increase the strength of the pipe. Some pipe formers accomplish this by corrugating the metal strip before it is fed into the pipeformer. A disadvantage to existing corrugated pipe formers is that they produce pipe having continuous corrugations from end to end of a pipe segment. This type of pipe is very difficult to cut with a pipe cutting knife or knives. Typically, a saw blade is used to cut corrugated pipe. Saw blades may present safety issues as well as problems with forming clean cuts on the pipe. Another drawback with pipe formers that form continuous corrugated spiral pipe is that the pipe former is limited to only forming corrugated pipe and requires changing portions of the hardware in order to also produce smooth spirally formed pipe.